What a location is in Shopify
For Shopify, a location is any physical place where you sell, fulfill orders or store stock: a warehouse, a store, a showroom or a pop-up shop. Each location has its own address and its own inventory per variant, and you can decide whether it fulfills online orders or only sells at the register.
Dropshipping apps and third-party logistics providers can also appear as locations, because they manage stock and fulfill orders on your behalf. Check each app's settings to see how it integrates with Shopify inventory before connecting it.
It is worth deciding early what counts as a location and what does not. A warehouse with two zones is not two locations; neither is a store with a back room. The fewer artificial locations you create, the easier it is to read your stock and keep counts up to date.
How many locations each plan allows
According to Shopify's pricing page, Basic, Grow and Advanced allow up to 10 inventory locations, and Shopify Plus up to 200. For most brands with one or two warehouses and a few physical stores, any standard plan is enough on this front.
If you are close to the limit, consider whether every location needs to exist in Shopify. A pop-up shop that has closed or a warehouse you no longer use can be deactivated; first you will need to move or zero out its stock and reassign pending orders.
How online orders are routed
When an order comes in, Shopify decides which location fulfills it using order routing rules, which you configure under Settings > Shipping and delivery. You can set a priority order between locations, prefer the one that has the whole order in stock so it is not split, or prefer the one closest to the customer.
If no location has everything, the order may be split and ship from two places. That doubles the shipping cost and worsens the customer experience. To avoid it, review the rules and decide what you prefer: take a little longer by shipping from a single warehouse, or ship sooner in two packages.
- Fixed priority between locations
- Prefer the location that has the whole order
- Prefer the location closest to the customer
- Finer-grained rules with order routing Shopify Functions
Transfers and receiving stock
Moving stock from a warehouse to a store is recorded as a transfer in the admin. You create the transfer with origin, destination, products and quantities, and when it is received at the destination it is added to that location's inventory. That way stock in transit is tracked and does not show as available too early.
For goods arriving from suppliers, POS Pro and some inventory apps let you work with purchase orders. Recording incoming stock this way, instead of adding quantities by hand, leaves a history of what arrived, when and at what cost.
Every inventory adjustment is recorded in the product history with the reason and the person who made it. When stock does not add up, that history is the first place to look. If you also work with an ERP, define which of the two systems is the source of truth for stock and have the other only read it, so they do not overwrite each other.
What the customer sees in the store
In the online store, Shopify shows as available the sum of stock at the locations that fulfill online orders. A physical store set up only for register sales does not count toward the website. This is controlled per location and is one of the settings that causes the most confusion if it is not checked at the start.
If you have local pickup turned on, customers can see on the product page or at checkout which stores have the item and choose to pick it up there. It is a strong selling point for businesses with physical stores, and the theme can show availability per store on the product page.
Also decide what happens when online stock runs out but units remain in a store that does not sell online. You can leave the product as sold out, turn on pickup at that store or move units to the warehouse. There is no single answer, but there does need to be a decision made before it happens, so the team knows what to do and the customer does not see contradictory messages between the website and the store.
Common mistakes with multiple locations
The first is creating locations without loading their real stock, which leaves products showing as sold out or, worse, sellable without stock. The second is leaving overselling turned on for products that should not allow it. The third is not reviewing routing rules and finding that orders ship from the physical store instead of the warehouse.
Before going live, place test orders with addresses in different regions and check which location each one is assigned to. It is the fastest way to catch a misconfigured rule. Repeat the test every time you add a new location or change priorities, because a rule that worked with two warehouses can behave differently with three.
- Initial stock loaded per location
- Locations that sell online clearly marked
- Routing rules tested with test orders
- Overselling turned off where it does not apply
Frequently asked questions
How many locations can I have in Shopify?
According to Shopify's pricing page, up to 10 on Basic, Grow and Advanced, and up to 200 on Shopify Plus. Check the official page in case it changes.
Can I have a physical store that does not sell online?
Yes. For each location you decide whether it fulfills online orders. If you turn that off, its stock is only sold at the register and does not count on the website.
How do I stop an order from being split into two shipments?
Set your routing rules to prioritize the location that has the whole order in stock. That way Shopify only splits the order when no single location can fulfill it in full.
Does a third-party logistics provider count as a location?
It is usually integrated through an app that appears as a location with its own stock. Check the app's documentation to see how it works and how it affects your location limit.